Saturday, January 3, 2009

Entertainment: Not the first black but the youngest Doctor ever casted in Matt Smith. First impression... He is pictured with a bang hairstyle and looks like MTV VJ douche and where the hell is his eyebrows?

"...Steve Moffat, who is succeeding Russell T Davies as lead writer on the show, said he had originally been looking for a mature replacement for Tennant.

'One thing I was very emphatic about was I thought there were too many people young on the list,' he revealed. 'I said "I think we're looking for someone in their 40s, or 30s". And of course we ended up casting a 26-year-old.'

And he was complimentary about Smith's potential: 'There is something quite old about him, so he looks old and young at the same time, which is terribly important.'

That is the kind of talk you hear about losing NFL team picking their first round draft choice that the owner wanted but not the coach.

Every pic coming out so far is making look like more of a douche than the previous one.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Politics: Oh now we get some background. No wonder Blago pulled that stunt with Reid and the other Senate Dems.

Days before Gov. Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, top Senate Democrat Harry Reid made it clear who he didn’t want in the post: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones.

Rather, Reid called Blagojevich to argue he appoint either state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Sources say the Senate majority leader pushed against Jackson and Davis — both democratic congressmen from Illinois — and against Jones — the Illinois Senate majority leader who is the political godfather of President-elect Barack Obama — because he did not believe the three men were electable. He feared losing the seat to a Republican in a future election.

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero confirmed that Reid (D-Nev.) and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) — the new chief of the Senate Democratic political operation — each called Blagojevich’s campaign office separately Dec. 3. Sources believe that at least portions of the phone conversations are on tape.

Before their contacts, Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel called Blagojevich to tell him to expect to hear from Senate leadership because they were pushing against Jackson and others, according to statements the governor made to others.

The Reid-Menendez calls came a day before a Dec. 4 conversation overheard on government wiretaps where Blagojevich says he “was getting ‘a lot of pressure’ not to appoint Candidate 5.” Candidate 5 is Jackson.

Danny K Davis

Jesse Jackson Jr.

Emil Jones

Blagojevich is crazy like a fox, he has singlehandly outsmarted the rest of the Dem party.

Media: With David Tennant leaving the speculation and betting lines have settled on Paterson Joseph to be the 11th Doctor.

Doctor Who fans will discover the identity of the latest actor to play the Time Lord.Paterson Joseph is the runaway favourite and would become the first black man in the role.

David Tennant announced in October that he was stepping down after filming four special episodes in 2009. Since then fans have been busy debating on internet forums who will take over.

David Morrissey, who starred in the Doctor Who Christmas special, was previously a favourite.There has also been speculation that Billie Piper, who played the Doctor's assistant Rose Tyler, would become the first woman to take the part.

Tennant's replacement, the eleventh Doctor since the programme was first aired in 1963, will be revealed in Doctor Who Confidential on BBC One at 5.35pm.The BBC have kept the actor's identity a close secret but did admit they made the decision over Christmas. He or she will star in the 2010 series, due to begin filming in the summer.

Joseph, 44, was the leading contender, with bookmakers William Hill last night putting him at 4/6.He has starred in two previous Doctor Who episodes, both in 2005, and once commented 'any actor would love the challenge' of playing the character.

Media: Why people are so upset over Froomkin pondering if he and other journalists should be "skeptical" of Barack Obama only becomes a shock if you believe him to be an objective journalist. He never has been and now with his favorite in office his column goes from White House Watch to White House Cheerleader.

Froomkin has always been an intolerable liberal hack who never hide his Bush and Conservative hatred. The question he throws out there is a signal of how he will cover Obama just like most of the MSM.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Nation: I knew this sounded familiar. NYTIMES did a piece on the trouble of section 8 renters moving out to Antioch back in August of 2008 even quoting Karen Coleman about her troubles.

I did look at the times piece as lamer PC version of the Memphis Section 8 study in the Atlantic which showed the logical conclusion if you take people out of poor crime ridden areas the trouble is likely to follow. The AP story just goes over the same ground but with some amazing liberal quotes at the end.

As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren.

In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing.

Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive them out.

"A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who came here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburg. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here."

City officials deny the allegations in the lawsuits, which were filed last spring and seek unspecified damages.

Across the country, similar tensions have simmered when federally subsidized renters escaped run-down housing projects and violent neighborhoods by moving to nicer communities in suburban Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles.

But the friction in Antioch is "hotter than elsewhere," said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman Larry Bush.

.....Joseph Villarreal, the housing authority chief, said the problems in Antioch mirror tensions seen nationally when poor renters move into neighborhoods they can afford only with government help.

"One of the goals of the programs is to de-concentrate poverty," Villarreal said. "There are just some people who don't want to spend public money that way."

Tensions like those afflicting Antioch have drawn scholars and law enforcement officials to debate whether crime follows subsidized renters out of the tenements to the suburbs.

Susan Popkin, a researcher at the nonprofit Urban Institute, said she does not believe that is the case. But the tensions, she said, are real.

"That can be a recipe for anxiety," she said. "It can really change the demographics of a neighborhood."

You cannot "de-concentrate" poverty or instill character and acting the good citizen by handing out a rental voucher to people in these areas. You can take the person out the area but the area is still in the person. Of course what passes for acceptable or normal behavior would be transported out to these suburbs which is going to upset people who have no desire to deal with the problem which seem to be getting worse.

They are even bringing Section 8'ers to Century Village which is making people upset because the do-gooders in power want to help people. This isn't help, this is a feel good program that spreads out poverty and crime to other areas with the assitance of taxpayer funded money.

Now it is really easy to mock the liberals when their program of love backfires. In this case however I would join the protests, if I knew in my area that a influx of Section 8'ers were coming my way I would sell at a loss and get the hell out of Dodge.

It is not about color, it is about character and when the 8'ers move in and you see crime shoot up with the area changing around you, its not racist to point out the probable major cause of the situation.

Nation: I didn't know we had that many Hamas lovers in Fort Lauderdale of all places until this week.

“I have not seen such hatred in this country since Selma. That was when I really just shuddered and thought–they (the pro-Hamas-niks) are taking away our country.” (See below for her report, just in).

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA. December 30, 2008

“This is not Gaza, or London, or Paris, or even Detroit. This is downtown Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.”

Tom Trento is describing the intense demonstration against Israel that just took place. He made the video by quietly and bravely circulating among the pro-Palestine demonstrators so that we can easily hear their chants. At red-hot levels of screaming rage, about 200-300 demonstrators, many in kaffiyehs, wearing or holding the Palestinian flag, some wearing “Obama” baseball hats, many women in serious hijab and men in Islamic prayer clothing, chanted “Nuke Israel–there is no Israel,” “Occupation is a Crime,” “Go to Hell, Israel,” “Free Palestine.” One fully bearded African-American man in Islamic clothing proselytized. He said that Islam is wonderful, that it’s in our very natures, that we had best accept this.

After conducting a public evening prayer service with a megaphone, the mob became more fervent and rageful, broke loose, began verbally and physically confronting the 50 pro-Israeli demonstrators. The police did their job and no one was hurt.

But, as Trento says at the end of his video: “There is a lot of work to be done in 2009.”

Please pay attention to the level of orchestrated, almost brainwashed rage. It is a killing rage: fierce, almost orgasmic. This kind of demonstration can easily turn into a mob–and we have seen what civilians in mobs like this have done all over the Islamic world and in Europe.

Nation: People were warning about this and guess what, everyone is welcome to the money trough.

The U.S. Treasury drafted broad guidelines for aid to the auto industry that would let officials provide funds to any company they deem important to making or financing cars.

With today’s announcement, the Treasury is giving itself room to provide money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program beyond loans already committed to General Motors Corp., GMAC LLC and Chrysler LLC.

That’s consistent with analysts’ speculation yesterday that suppliers, such as GM’s bankrupt former parts unit Delphi Corp., might be eligible for assistance. The guidelines may encourage more guessing on what companies and industries are next, said Vincent Reinhart, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

Officials “much prefer discretion, and so they would view the statement as being constructively ambiguous,” Reinhart said. “It’s appropriate that they end the year the way they spent most of it -- that is, adding uncertainty into an environment in which there’s a lot of uncertainty.”

DECEMBER 31--Following his arrest earlier today for drunk driving, Charles Barkley told Arizona cops that he ran a stop sign because he was in a hurry to pick up a girl who had "given him a 'blow job' one week earlier," which the former NBA star described as "the best one he had ever had in his life."

According to a Gilbert Police Department report, a copy of which you'll find here, police asked Barkley where he was going at the time of the 1:26 AM traffic stop in Scottsdale. "You want the truth? I was gonna drive around the corner and get a blow job," answered Barkley, who is pictured in the below mug shot.

A cooperative Barkley also joked with a civilian police employee that, "I'll tattoo your name on my ass" if it would get him out of the DUI charge.

Business: Another fine example of why bailout out the big 3 and this case GM's finance branch was a horrendous idea. Lets get the cash and just make more bad loans.

With GMAC now resurrected as a bank holding company -- which means it has access to federal funds -- the race is on to get cash into the public's pockets so they will buy cars. To help prime the pump, GM announced it is offering zero-percent financing on some slow-sellers, including its GMC Envoys and Chevy Trailblazers, for up to 60 months.

That's five years of "free" money for a brand new SUV. See full story on GMAC's new funds.

But wait. Wasn't it a flood of cheap money and rampant consumerism that landed the U.S. economy in its current pickle?

Well, yes. But according to GM, we'll just have to sort that out later. Right now, the primary objective is to use credit to move inventory. This is crucial because the industry -- from suppliers to manufacturers to dealers -- is starved for liquidity. Now they've got it.

GMAC's plan so far is to give loans while lowering the credit score requirement. WHen the 621 score line doesn't hold, you know they will go much lower just to move cars. But even if that doesn't work what is the next plan?

Meanwhile, Detroit and the lawmakers who opened the spigot of federal bailout funds are crossing their fingers, hoping this latest cash infusion will revive the domestic auto industry.

If it doesn't, the next step might include lobbying for a federally-backed "scrappage" plan to take existing cars off the road and make room for new ones.

Detroit's top executives are already looking into it. By hook or by crook, they desperately need to move a bulging fleet of automobiles that many of us either don't want or can't afford.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Australia: Between this and Internet filtering, Australia is becoming a tight ass of a nation. I suspect this is just the good Rev. using cultural sensibilities as an excuse to push his own agenda to ban the topless practice.

The Reverend Nile has rejected allegations that prudishness is behind a bill he has prepared to ban nudity, including topless sunbathing, on the state's most popular beaches.

Australia's reputation as a conservative but culturally inclusive sociery was at risk of erosion by more liberal overseas visitors, he said.

"Our beaches should be a place where no one is offended, whether it's their religious or cultural views," he said.

"If they've come from a Middle Eastern or Asian country where women never go topless - in fact they usually wear a lot of clothing - I think it's important to respect all the different cultures that make up Australia."

The practice was at risk of raising the ire of Muslim men in particular, Mr Nile said.

"I don't want to have any provocations or disturbances on our public beaches," he said.

EU: It only took a couple of murders, terrorist threats and visible disturbing signs that their live and let live multicultural nonsense wasn't working.

"....Two weeks ago, the country's biggest left-wing political grouping, the Labor Party, which has responsibility for integration as a member of the coalition government led by the Christian Democrats, issued a position paper calling for the end of the failed model of Dutch "tolerance."

It came at the same time Nicolas Sarkozy was making a case in France for greater opportunities for minorities that also contained an admission that the French notion of equality "doesn't work anymore."

But there was a difference. If judged on the standard scale of caution in dealing with cultural clashes and Muslims' obligations to their new homes in Europe, the language of the Dutch position paper and Lilianne Ploumen, Labor's chairperson, was exceptional.

The paper said: "The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance."

Government and politicians had too long failed to acknowledge the feelings of "loss and estrangement" felt by Dutch society facing parallel communities that disregard its language, laws and customs.

Newcomers, according to Ploumen, must avoid "self-designated victimization."

She asserted, "the grip of the homeland has to disappear" for these immigrants who, news reports indicate, also retain their original nationality at a rate of about 80 percent once becoming Dutch citizens.

Instead of reflexively offering tolerance with the expectation that things would work out in the long run, she said, the government strategy should be "bringing our values into confrontation with people who think otherwise."

There was more: punishment for trouble-making young people has to become so effective such that when they emerge from jail they are not automatically big shots, Ploumen said.

For Ploumen, talking to the local media, "The street is mine, too. I don't want to walk away if they're standing in my path.

"Without a strategy to deal with these issues, all discussion about creating opportunities and acceptance of diversity will be blocked by suspicion and negative experience."

And that comes from the heart of the traditional, democratic European left, where placing the onus of compatibility on immigrants never found such comfort before."

Politics: It had everything you expect from a liberal. Victimization, race card played so obscenely that it made me giddy, Blago acting like a ruthless motherf'er daring someone to block the black man from what is now the black senate seat.This was the best case of you screw me then I screw you back double time to everyone who dumped on him.

On Tuesday, Blagojevich, a Democrat, named former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to serve the last two years of Obama's Senate term.

Senate Democratic leaders have said they will block the appointment and are urging the governor to step down after his arrest on corruption charges -- a move Obama endorsed.

"Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat," Obama said in a statement.

"I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Gov. Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it."

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, who appeared at the afternoon news conference, warned senators about blocking Burris from being seated.

"There are no African-Americans in the U.S. Senate. And I don't think any U.S. senator who's sitting in the Senate right now wants to go on record to deny one African-American from being seated in the U.S. Senate," he said.

"I would ask you to not hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer and separate the appointee from the appointer," Rush said."

Rush said he will take that argument to the Congressional Black Caucus as well as U.S. senators -- including Dick Durbin, a Democrat and Illinois' senior senator

According to Hot Air, the law is on Blago's side and the Senate Dems cannot block Burris. This is shaping up to be fun.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

UK: I dislike these sort of Americans or any ex-pat who feel their existence on this planet is based on the people in the country they are in love them. I consider these types an especially wretched lot.

For many of Britain's transplanted Americans, who lived through the height of the vitriol hurled at the Bush administration over the Iraq war, it is a feeling that takes some getting used to. One US diplomat recalls that during Bush's November 2003 visit to London, disrupted by major anti-war protests, the president was moved to remark on a recent stunt by magician David Blaine, who had been pelted by kebabs as he was suspended in a plastic box above the Thames. "I'll bet you they wish it had been me up there," he said.

At some stage, feels American Londoner Matthew Lynch, an instinctive conservative who voted for Obama this time around, the "Bush-bashing got so unimaginative and boring, it was beating a dead horse".

Yet even with the often heard British caveat that "it's not Americans, it's the administration we can't stand", the effect on ordinary expatriates was inescapable - particularly for those, like Lynch, who feel that history may gradually soften the view of the 43rd president and that "if it was not for Iraq, his presidency would not be so tarnished".

Zimmerman arrived in London on the day that Bush took office in 2001. The move was prompted by his work as a research scientist. "It was just chance," he says. But so appalled was he by Bush's election that he began thinking of himself as something of a political refugee. He took to joking to Londoners who asked him where he was from, saying: "I'm pretending to be Canadian until the revolution." (He chuckles that, despite Britain's famous pride in its non-American sense of "irony", this sometimes elicited the response: "Where in Canada?")

"It has been very, very rare over the past few years to run into Brits who didn't respond to the Bush administration as kind of the political equivalent of a snake-handling cult," he says.

Soriano's husband Cesar, a foreign correspondent who before moving to Britain reported from Iraq for USA Today, recalls: "Before we knew anybody really, we would never tell anybody we were American. Because we'd always get it in the neck."

Since election day, as one American businessman puts it, living in an Obama-smitten Britain, has felt like a long, pleasant sense of "exhaling".

Marsha Soriano says she is feeling "really proud" these days, and has even displayed the Stars and Stripes on her desk. "It's a great time to be American."

THE CONCLUSION by President-elect Barack Obama's lawyer that neither the president-elect nor anyone on his transition team engaged in any impropriety relating to the vacant Illinois Senate seat will no doubt be greeted with some skepticism.

After all, it was not likely that the report would contradict Mr. Obama's earlier assertions that he had not spoken with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) about the vacancy and that there were no inappropriate staff-level contacts with Mr. Blagojevich's office. Nonetheless, unless there are facts that the Obama team did not unearth or that it chose to conceal -- and there is no indication of either -- the report by incoming White House counsel Gregory B. Craig turns out to hardly have been worth some of the hyperventilating leading up to it.